Urban trees are often so familiar, we rarely notice them. Yet they bring many benefits: filtering the air, mopping up surplus rainwater, cooling streets and providing wildlife habitats.

We also tend to think they are rather nice to look at.

It’s only when favourite street or park trees are felled that we realise how much we appreciate them: witness the public furore generated by Sheffield’s attempted “massacre” of 17,500 city trees.

In Wales, the country’s Victorian and Edwardian tree legacy is under threat. Between 2006-2013, 7,000 large trees were lost, while aerial imagery showed that, in the four years to 2013, 72% of Welsh towns lost some of their tree canopies.

Mr Bavaresco, who has written extensively on the subject, believes large, mature trees are being lost from towns and villages due to haphazard planning controls.

This trend is accelerating amid growing development pressures, he insisted. Offsetting policies, advocated by some councils, usually meant replacing big trees with little trees that would not mature for several generations.

In the meantime the valuable and often unquantified ecosystem services offered by trees – from carbon mitigation to wildlife and even recreation – were being discarded, he said.

Campaigners in Sheffield have come to an agreement with the city council which they say will save many trees (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Urban tree campaign

In a bid to reverse declines, Coed Cadw (Woodland Trust) launched a 2016 petition calling on the Welsh Assembly to set a minimum 20% tree cover target for all towns and cities in Wales.

Nationally, the mean figure in 2013 was 16.3%, though there are huge variations. Coastal towns, for example, often have very low cover – Holyhead has a mere 7%.

Social factors play a part too: Rhyl is just 10 miles from Colwyn Bay but its tree cover, at 6%, is a third of its more affluent neighbour.

Instead, the WI has sprung into action. In 2017 the Wales federation launched a two-year, lottery-funded project to preserve urban trees. Close to 200 Institutes have registered an interest, with members identifying, measuring, surveying and planting trees.

“Their enthusiasm has been amazing,” said OPAL director Dr David Slawson. “Trees in Wales now have a whole new cadre of champions to protect them.”

Street trees can outgrow their welcome... this Post Box in Cardiff was decommissioned because a tree began enveloping it (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Preservation shortcomings

Mr Bavaresco spoke out against Gwynydd Council after representing a client whose mature trees were allegedly compromised by a neighbouring development.

He said poor advice from tree surgeons was often accepted by under-pressure council planners, resulting in unnecessary loss of trees even when they have preservation orders.

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Others are cut down because some householders are under the “misguided” impression that large trees adjacent to their homes may affect property values, said Mr Bavaresco.

Moreover, too many tree practitioners were under-qualified.

“Anyone can purchase a chainsaw and fell trees,” he said.

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Measuring the value of street trees

Critics complain that canopy loss is often facilitated by planners because the value of urban trees cannot be quantified against obvious development gains such as a jobs, transport and wealth creation.

To address this problem, Natural Resources Wales launched an i-Tree Eco Study to measure the benefits of town trees. In 2013 the first was undertaken in Wrexham, a town which went on to pioneer its own voluntary tree strategy.

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Annually the town’s trees remove 1,329 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, worth £278,000; and by cleaning the air, they filter out 60 tonnes of pollution, saving the NHS £700,000 by cutting asthma and heart disease.

Collectively, the ecosystem services provided by Wrexham’s trees were valued at £1.44m-a-year. Incredibly, i-Tree concluded it would cost £900m to replace the town’s trees if they were all lost.

Flintshire Council has published its first Urban Tree and Woodland Plan

Flintshire's approach

Flintshire followed suit in 2018 with its own tree strategy, aiming for a county-wide urban canopy of 18% by 2033.

Currently it has 14.5%, the seventh lowest in Wales. Worst areas are Broughton (5.3%) and Saltney (5.5%).

Increasing tree cover in Flintshire will mainly be achieved via planting, particularly in towns like in Connah’s Quay where there is a theoretical potential to reach 62% canopy cover.

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However this approach, on its own, will not deliver its 18% cover target, accepts the council. Existing tree cover must be properly safeguarded too. From now on it will take a dimmer view of residents who complain trees are interfering with TV signals or blocking sunlight from solar panels.

Mr Bavaresco wants Cardiff to go further. “If mature urban trees are considered important, it must legislate to require ecosystem service valuations in all planning decisions,” he said.